Jesus and Me in Workplace Ministry: 17 Proven Guidelines

By Frank E. Henrich

This book is a highly spiritual, yet practical guide to successful ministry in your workplace regardless of your age or position. Drawn from his thirty-one years of secular employment, the author has developed seventeen useful guidelines for ministry to those in your workplace. Chapters on each of the seventeen guidelines, based on his real-life experiences, form the poetic testimonies that are easy to read, inspirational, and insightful. Christians will find effective step-by-step counsel to propel their ministry in their day-to-day encounters at work. The author demonstrates how a common man can be very effective in the workplace for our amazing God.

From Jeffrey Burton Russell - author of books on Christian history, Professor emeritus of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara comes the below endorsement:

This book is a chest containing many bright gold and silver coins of wisdom that every Christian can cherish. Among its important messages is the advice to keep one's mind and soul open to Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449782092

Frank E. Henrich

Frank Henrich is a Christian poet and writer who for 31 years reached out for God to his customers and friends while earning his living as a businessperson. He learned 17 spiritual guidelines which he shares. His poems have reached a worldwide audience on website www.poemsforchrist.com. Starting to write in 1973, he is still an active Christian writer.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 BY FRANK E. HENRICH.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1-[phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Cover layout by Jim Steward of Vision Graphix & Design of Modesto, CA. Cover illustration by Patrick Hrabe. Both used with their permissions.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8210-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8211-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8209-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013900745

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press rev. date: 3/6/2013

CREDITS

To God for gifts and leadership.

To my wife, Barbara Henrich who shares this ministry with me; and my family especially Mary Doria for proofreading and editing; Meg Patterson for work on images, and Dave Patterson for his ideas.

To J. P. Hurlbert for asking me to give a speech which later resulted in this book being created.

To Dr. Jeffrey Burton Russell for his encouragement and advice.

Images credit:

The image of Jesus washing the feet of an apostle is from an medieval manuscript now held at the Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Houghton Library MS Typ 0252 fol.36v 1500 AD. Used with their permission.

All other images are used with the permission of iclipart.com or are no longer copywrited.

email [e-mail]

VISIT THE WEBSITE www.poemsforchrist.com for poems and other articles by Frank Henrich.

FORWARD

This book is a chest containing many bright gold and silver coins of wisdom that every Christian can cherish. Among its important messages is the advice to keep one’s mind and soul open to Christ. We all make mistakes of reason, judgment, and morality, but if we use discernment whenever we are faced with an important decision as to word or deed, we will be protected by the Holy Spirit from many pitfalls. The first step of discernment involves using reason and evidence to quell emotional excesses. On the deepest level, it means bringing our whole self into communion with Christ and asking that we may do His will. Never tell Christ what we think He wants us to do; instead, open ourselves to Him fully and let Him tell us what He wants us to do. Often we will be surprised. Likewise, keep open to people whom we encounter, and instead of trying to convince them that we are right, meet them where they are and let the Spirit work through us according to His plan.

By Jeffrey Burton Russell - author of books on Christian history, Professor emeritus of history at the University of California-Santa Barbara.

A LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR TO YOU

In this book we will be taking a journey of faith together, so I thought you might like to have some background information on your fellow traveler. So let’s give it a whirl!

I was born in 1931, being raised by Christian parents during the depression in a small town in South Dakota. After graduating from the University of South Dakota with a business degree in 1953, I served as an officer in the United States Navy during the Korean War, and then started my business career, which involved the founding of three companies in packaging materials products. Married 55 years in 2012, my wife and I have four grown children and nine grandchildren.

When I was 31 years old, God touched my life in such a way that I knew He is real, alive, and Spirit. With a zeal to share our Lord Jesus with others, my Christian work has been focused in bringing Christians back into church attendance, and increasing their faith in God. I was never in a paid ministry, but my mission field was in my business life, where God used me to assist many persons in trouble.

In 1973, I prayed asking God to give me a writing ministry, so I could leave some faith-strengthening material with those He helped. Soon I was writing short articles and poems on faith building to help myself and friends to handle their problems. Some of these articles and poems are in this book, and were written between 1973 to the present. I am now 81 and am retired from business, but staying very active with family and writing. As poems come to me, I write them down, and then ask God where and to whom I am to give them. I share this ministry with my wife who is always adding her needed touch.

This led us to start a web page in January 2009 called www.poemsforchrist.com that sends the poems out into the four corners of the world. Its success still surprises us. Praise God! Now we believe God wants us to put them into a book for you to read.

I would like to close this letter to you with one of my prayers to God:

THE PRAYER OF A CHRISTIAN WRITER

There are thousands of persons who can write about the wonders of God better than I can, but does the Holy Spirit permeate their words? For when the Holy Spirit speaks through the words, it is not so much what they say; but the Holy Spirit leaps from the words to the spirit (soul) of another person; to prick, touch, sooth and heal; to awake the human spirit to the realness of God. Oh! Holy Spirit, my prayer is not that I write the finest manuscript, but that you permeate my words. Let them be a conduit of your power. Help me to shape the word thoughts, as you desire, so God will be glorified.

by Frank E. Henrich April 2, 2006

________________________________

Let’s us now start the journey, you and I, through the book. May God bless you as you read this book.

Frank Henrich December 11, 2012

Table of Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 – GUIDELINE ONE

Ask God to use you as a minister

CHAPTER 2 - GUIDELINE TWO

Pray each morning to be used

CHAPTER 3 – GUIDELINE THREE

Learn to follow God’s plan

CHAPTER 4 - GUIDELINE FOUR

Be bold when God calls you to action

CHAPTER 5 - GUIDELINE FIVE

Pray to be empowered by God

CHAPTER 6 - GUIDELINE SIX

Send God’s love ahead of you

CHAPTER 7 - GUIDELINE SEVEN

Give your secular work its due

CHAPTER 8 - GUIDELINE EIGHT

Seek to live a holy life

CHAPTER 9 – GUIDELINE NINE

Nurture God within you

CHAPTER 10 – GUIDELINE TEN

Seek to learn more about God

CHAPTER 11 - GUIDELINE ELEVEN

Guard against spiritual pride. Be

Humble, meek, and bold for God

CHAPTER 12 - GUIDELINE TWELVE

Christians may hinder your ministry

CHAPTER 13 – GUIDELINE THIRTEEN

Attend Church, Bible studies

CHAPTER 14 - GUIDELINE FOURTEEN

When you sin, immediately confess

CHAPTER 15 – GUIDELINE FIFTEEN

God may change your secular work

CHAPTER 16 - GUIDELINE SIXTEEN

Be God’s minister where planted

CHAPTER 17 – GUIDELINE SEVENTEEN

Don’t hide your Christianity

CHAPTER 18 - CONCLUSION

PREFACE

This book describes a journey. Yes, a life trip where I sought to draw closer to God and be His lay minister on a one-on-one basis to the people life has brought into my circle of activity. Would you like to come with me as I describe its many turns in the road? If so, I invite you. Come get into my car and let’s go. I will be your tour guide. The trip will be thru the guidelines I learned from God through the hard knocks and joys of such a trip. Why do I bring you on this road to God? Could it be that you hunger to know more about God? Or could it be that God is preparing you to be His outreach, to be His hands or His voice through which the Holy Spirit will inspire other souls lost on their way - some saved and some yet to know Jesus as their Savior and Redeemer. Are you saying to yourself that time is short and you long for God to use you for His glory?

The beginnings of this book started when I was asked to give an address to a group of businesspersons in May 2012. I thought what could I, as an 81-year-old retired businessman, say of interest to these active middle-aged businesspersons? Then came the thought, I could tell them the lessons God taught me during the 31 years I ministered in the workplace. So with pen in hand, my paper filled with seventeen guidelines I learned to use and always followed. I then made my outline for the speech.

While doing this, a picture was viewed by my mind. It appeared in what I call the theater of my mind. You know the place where we relive memories. What I saw in the theater was a picture of me sitting in a chair looking out of a window. Then the picture changed to another camera pose where I was looking out the window into the dark night. It was a summer’s night, and I was watching the insects fly around and around a light bulb on the outdoor porch ceiling. Then the meaning came clear to me. As insects are drawn to the light so are spiritually sick persons drawn physically to persons who hold the spiritual light of Christ within them. That explains why we soldiers for Christ find the hurting souls keep coming to us for solace. When the picture was gone, I sat down at my computer and wrote the poem called The Light Of Christ Within Us. The lecture to the businesspersons started with reading this poem.

THE LIGHT OF CHRIST WITHIN US

As the single light glowing on a porch ceiling

When the darkness of night fills the shadows

The insects fly around and around its glow

Wishing only to touch but knowing better.

So we are drawn to light from darkness

Like the sight of windows aglow coming home,

Signaling a place of warmth, security, and love,

Coming after a day of working for our